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That 2011-12 N.B.A. Schedule? Never Mind

More N.B.A. games will be canceled soon, perhaps today or tomorrow or next week. The timing hardly matters anymore. The schedule, at least as it was presented in July, is already worthless.

Two weeks of games have been canceled. The rest of November’s games will be wiped out soon. And at least two arenas, in Los Angeles and Chicago, have reassigned some December dates for other events, with the N.B.A.’s blessing.

To be clear, the league is not secretly canceling the December schedule — the Los Angeles Lakers and the Chicago Bulls were assured of alternate nights to replace those they surrendered — but the decision to release those arena dates underscores the obsolescence of the published schedule.

Lead negotiators for the N.B.A. and the players union will meet again Wednesday, just six days after talks collapsed, in another attempt to end the lockout, according to a person briefed on the talks.

Whenever the lockout is resolved, the N.B.A. will build a new schedule from scratch, using all arena dates that are still reserved, according to people who are aware of the league’s plans. N.B.A. officials declined to discuss the issue Tuesday.

Thus, the decision to formally announce cancellations is an academic exercise, and perhaps a bit of political theater. The announcements are a warning shot to the league’s 430-plus players, a reminder that they are losing hundreds of millions of dollars.

So far, the N.B.A. has canceled 100 games, scheduled for Nov. 1 to 14. The next cancellation announcement would cover the balance of the November schedule, at a minimum. Or the league could elect to postpone all games indefinitely.

Most N.B.A. players receive their first paychecks on Nov. 15. As a practical matter, those paychecks are already gone, representing about $175 million in lost pay.

The money could theoretically be recovered if the lockout is resolved soon, and if the N.B.A. finds a way to squeeze in an 82-game schedule. But there are many obstacles, primarily the lack of available arena dates, and Commissioner David Stern has repeatedly signaled that the games will not be made up.

It will take three to four weeks for the N.B.A. to start the season once a labor deal is reached. The cancellations are loosely based on that timeline.

When the N.B.A. canceled the first 100 games of the season this month, it immediately released its 29 arenas from any obligations for those dates. For now, the arenas are still bound to honor the printed schedule from Nov. 15 and beyond. There are two notable exceptions.

A Lakers game at Staples Center against the Toronto Raptors, scheduled for Dec. 13, has been dropped in favor of a Jay-Z and Kanye West concert, The Orange County Register reported last week. The change was made with the N.B.A.’s approval and with assurances that the Lakers-Raptors game could be accommodated on another night.

The league clarified in a statement that the change was not an indication that December games had been canceled, but rather that the printed schedule was defunct.

“With the cancellation of the first two weeks of the season, the N.B.A. schedule would have to be reworked and certain dates — including Dec. 13 for a Lakers game at Staples Center — would not be part of any revised schedule,” said the statement, which was published by The Register.

A Bulls game against the San Antonio Spurs, scheduled for Nov. 30 at United Center, has also been bumped for the Jay-Z tour. So far, no other arenas have received permission to release N.B.A. dates beyond Nov. 14.

Whatever arena dates the N.B.A. retains could eventually be used to construct a new schedule. It will look drastically different from what is on the books now, and probably without the preferred balance of games between the two conferences.

The typical N.B.A. schedule calls for teams to play opponents in their own conference four times (two home, two away) and opponents outside their conference twice (one home, one away). In 1999, when the league staged a 50-game season, after a 191-day lockout, teams played only five or six interconference games.

Negotiations between the owners and the players broke down last Thursday, for the third time this month. Staff members from both sides spoke on Monday.

Meanwhile, the owners held a meeting on Tuesday in New York — with several participating via conference call — to continue negotiations on a bolder revenue-sharing plan.

As the lockout reached its 117th day, the casualties continued to accrue. The Philadelphia 76ers laid off two scouts, Chris Ford and John Nash, according to reports. Both have long N.B.A. résumés, Ford as a head coach for four teams and Nash as a general manager for four teams.

Some 400 N.B.A. jobs have been eliminated since the lockout began July 1, through layoffs and attrition, according to The Sports Business Journal. The report estimated that 200 jobs had been shed by the league office, including jobs overseas, and that another 200 had been lost among the 30 franchises.

A version of this article appears in print on October 26, 2011, on page B19 of the New York edition with the headline: That 2011-12 N.B.A. Schedule? Never Mind. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe